A giant sea-snail shell is the visual metaphor for a 10-year-old girl who feels cut off from the world around her. The film, Mollusc, by Don’t Panic for Barnardo’s highlights the effects on British children of the cost-of-living crisis. The intervention of a specialist Barnardo’s support worker, offering her a safe space, allows her to open up and begin to reconnect.
The film adds to Don’t Panic’s portfolio of highly emotive and inventive cause campaigns. It was directed by awarded duo, DOM&NIC, through Outsider films and shot on 16mm film.
The shell was created as a real 3D-printed physical prop by Millennium FX with The Mill planning and creating the enhancements of its cracks and edges. The production team then replicated the shell and comped a collection of them into the final scene to emphasise the shared experience for the young girl. The production team also added small but significant details into the film, such as mould on the walls of the girl’s home.
Ada Rose, creative at Don’t Panic, commented, “The shell metaphor is a simple one but it captures so many complex and challenging experiences, and the more we worked with the frontline team at Barnardo’s the more resonant it became. It’s about dissociation, not being able to access resources, carrying shame, poor mental health and feeling you have to hide who you are. It’s so important that we recognise how all of these can be part of childrens’ and families’ experiences of poverty.”
Credits
Client: Bernardo’s
Chief Executive Officer: Lynn Perry
Strategy Director: Debbie Moss
Marketing Director: Rebecca Mauger
Head of Brand: Sheona Michie
Marketing Manager: Navneet Evans
Creative: Michael Walczak
Project Manager: Jo Moon
Creative Agency: Don’t Panic London
Founder: Joe Wade
Creative Partner: Rick Dodds
Creative Director: George Mccallum
Creative: Ada Rose
Partners: Jane Marshall & Ellie Moore
Head of Client Services: Georgia Williams
Designer: Ben Howell
Executive Producer: Jennifer Clare Houlihan
Producer: Madeline Chapman
Account Manager: Rheia Chand
Strategist: Anna Petrescu
Production Company: Outsider
Director: Dom&Nic
Executive Producer: Simon Elbourne
Producer: John Madsen
Director of Photography: Chris Sabogal
Production Manager: Tom Benkins
Production Assistant: Rita Aboderin
Location Manager: Claire Tovey
1st AD: Ben Gill
Photographer: Lewis Khan
Production: Kodak Film Labs
Production: Digital Orchard
Production: Hammond & Cox
Post Production & VFX: Millennium FX
FX Leads: Sharna Rothwell, Loren Clark & Kate Walshe
Post Production & VFX: The Mill London
VFX Supervisors: Leah Ayinde & Matt Mcdougal
VFX Producer: Elle Lockhart
CG Lead: Ivor Griffin
2D Lead: Leah Ayinde
2D Artist: Matt Mcdougal
Colour Grading: Pete Oppersdorff
Colour Assistants: Rory Leighton, Caitlin Donalson & Kennedy Dawson
Editing: Final Cut London
Editor: Ed Cheesman
Producer: Nikki Porter
Music & Sound: String and Tins
Sound Designer: Adam Smyth
Producer: Ellie Hook
Music: Curation
Music Supervisor: Sunny Kapoor
